Case Number 26145: Small Claims Court

VIVAN LAS ANTIPODAS

The Charge

"I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it'll seem to
come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The Antipathies,
I think..." -- Lewis Carroll

The Case

What are antipodes? "People or places diametrically opposite to one another
on the earth's surface," according to a legend at the start of ¡Vivan
Las Antipodas! Director Victor Kassakovsky takes viewers to four antipodal
pairs of cities: Entre Rios, Argentina, and Shanghai, China; Patagonia, Chile,
and Lake Baikal, Russia; Big Island, Hawaii, and Kubu, Botswana; and Miraflores,
Spain, and Castle Point, New Zealand.

¡Vivan Las Antipodas! is mostly wordless, its pictures -- which
include kids shooting hoops against a backdrop of volcanic rock, an eagle
swooping past mountains, elephants and lions, and lovers watching waves --
telling the stories of the eight locales. The pictures do every scene justice,
with sharp, bright color. The music that accompanies much of the movie gives
viewers the flavor of the countries featured in a majestic Gershwinny sort of
way.

Kassakovsky chooses his images well; getting a tractor moving and plowing a
field seems like a dramatic moment. At times, the images flip to mimic the
geographical opposition, a touch that's a bit corny but not too distracting. A
pan of a rundown neighborhood puts humanity into the documentary, but there's
less statement than you'd expect from the theme of antipodes.

Some background on the locales involved -- even with text -- would have been
helpful, but none is included.